Racial Ideas and Social Reform: Argentina, 1890-1916 Author(s): Eduardo A.

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Racial Ideas and Social Reform: Argentina, 1890-1916

EDUARDO A. ZIMMERMANN

a growing interestin the various ways racial ideas affected the political, social, and cultural development of the new nations. This paper addresses the particular connection between racial thought and the emergence of a social reformmovement in Argentinaat the turn of the century.The idea of race provided a common language and a "scientific"foundationfora wide varietyof discourses connected to the Argentine social question-problems such as public health, criminology, immigration control, anarchism, and labor militancy that were the consequences of urbanization and industrialization.In this context, race transcended all ideological boundaries and, as we shall see, was adopted as a key term by intellectuals and politicians of all persuasions. Ideas that later became symbols of reactionarypolitics, such as the intrinsic superiorityof certain racial groups over others or the need for a scientificregulation of racial purity,were at that time considered to be progressive notions, accepted by liberal reformersand socialists both in Argentinaand in the countrieswhere many of these doctrines originated.'

E C E NT

ofLatin America has evinced historiography

The authorwishesto thank in particular NancyStepan,EstebanThomsen,and two anonymous readersfrom the HAHR amonga long listofcolleaguesand friends who contributed theirsuggestions and criticisms. 1. For relevant a recentcollection ofessayseditedby RichardGraham, historiography, The Idea of Race in Latin America,1870-1940 (Austin:Univ. of Texas Press, 1990), provides a usefulbibliography. See also CharlesA. Hale, "Politicaland Social Ideas in Latin America,1870-1930," in The Cambridge History ofLatinAmerica,Leslie Bethell,ed. (New York:CambridgeUniv. Press, 1986), IV, 367-441. This paper is part of a largerworkon the emergenceof a social reform movement amongthe liberalelitesin Argentina, 1898with 1916. I have used the termliberalreformer to describethosewho,whilein agreement the basic ideologicaltenetsofthe ruling liberal-conservative order, advocateda moreactive in some cases, to role forthe statein the solution of the social questionand were williing,

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Historiansof the Argentine social questionhave tended to identify racismas an aristocratic prejudice,disguisedas nationalism and used by theelitesto represssocialunrest orjustify classprivileges.2 This approach neglects thecrucialrolethatintellectuals and professionals associated with the scientific of social policies played in the politicaldedevelopment bate ofthe earlytwentieth century. These liberalreformers and socialists shareda modern,secularoutlooktoward the socialquestion,whichthey wantedto solveaccording to thelatest in thesocialsciences. developments Amongthesegroups,theidea ofa scientific regulation ofracialpurity was seen as part of a new set of statefunctions directedtowardsolvingthe socialquestion,rather thanas a foundation for aristocratic nationalism and xenophobic attitudes. A large numberof specializedjournalsdedicatedto theseissues provided a forumfor these new intellectual currents.Discussions in the Argentine Congressrevealedtheimpact oftheseideas on policydebates, while judicial decisions also reflected the influence of racial theories, mainlythrough the doctrines of the Italianschoolof criminology led by Cesare Lombrosoand EnricoFerri. The conceptof race was farfrom clearlydefined. To some reformers it could implythe distinction betweendifferent ethniccategories and the establishment of a hierarchy of "superior" and "inferior" races. This disin turn, tinction, was based sometimes on biological factors and sometimes on geographical, and cultural factors. It was notuncommon historical, to confuserace withnationality, or to linkbiologicaland culturalfeatures of different racial groupsas inseparable.It has been suggestedthatthe or historical questionofwhether factors deterbiological, environmental, minedcertainracialdistinctions is "secondary."3 In thecase ofArgentina, thatquestioncan be helpful in perceiving in politidifferences important cal and ideologicalalignments. Whatcharacterized the approachofmany liberalsocialreformers was their concentration and biological on heredity
a moderateprogram.On the cooperatewiththe Argentine Socialistpartyin elaborating see Hale, "Politicaland Social Ideas." prevailing principles of liberalism and conservatism see Richard Walter,The liberalsocialreform On the Socialistparty and itsattitudes toward Univ. ofTexas Press, 1977). Daniel Pick Socialist Party of Argentina, 1890-1930 (Austin: the which(often by readingbackwards from has arguedagainst"the comforting mythology exclusively withthe intellec1930Sand the War) allies them[ideas of racialdegeneration] A European Disorder,c. 1848-c. 1918 tual worldofthe farRight."Faces of Degeneration: (Cambridge:CambridgeUniv.Press, 1989),30. and Chile, and Nationalism: Argentina 2. See forinstanceCarl Solberg,Immigration 1890-1914 (Austin:Univ. of Texas Press, 1970); Sandra McGee Deutsch, CounterrevoluPatriotic League (Lincoln:Univ.of Nebraska tionin Argentina, 1900-1932: The Argentina and Indigenismo: Mexico, 1910-1940,"in Gra3. Alan Knight,"Racism,Revolution, ham, Idea ofRace in LatinAmerica,93.
Press, 1986).

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determinism, whichtheytookto be advancedtoolsof scientific analysis and policy.On the otherhand, nationalist conservative writers such as RicardoRojas and Manuel Gdlvez,who held a strongly negativeview of the effects of the country's modernization on its spiritual life,tended to concentrate on the culturalincompatibilities of certain"races" and the Argentine Indo-Hispanic heritage, disregarding themodern, progressive, and "scientific" approachoftheliberalintelligentsia.4 Othercommentators used "race"to describethebiological constitution ofthe population, thereby an important playing partin the origination of specificsocial legislation aimed at the preservation of public healthand hygiene;these were seen as fundamental elementsin the fight against racialdegeneration. For thisstudy I have chosenno particular definition ofrace but instead have acceptedwhatever meaning thespecific actorsusingit intended it to have, thusconcentrating moreon the different "images"ofrace and their effect on certainsocial issuesthanon the appropriateness ofanyparticular interpretation of the concept. Argentine reformers were influenced by manydifferent racialdiscourses.Duringthe second halfof the nineteenthcentury the prestige ofDarwinism provided a common foundation to a wide variety ofschoolsand movements, and thecombination ofracial ideas withsocialreform movements became a common feature ofWestern and actionat the turnof the century. politicalthought As StefanCollini has pointedout,therewas "an almost frenetic searchfor guidancein social action,guidancewhichat the mostfundamental level itwas feltthatonly the laws ofsocial development could provide.Hence the appeal of Social Darwinisttheorizing.... Race, writesElie Halevy,had become the ofthe current keystone sociological systems. Varietiesof Racial Thought The mostcommoncombination of racialand social ideas was, of course, Social Darwinism.One of the problemsSocial Darwinismposes is the
4. On the origins ofArgentine nationalism, see David Rock,"Intellectual Precursors of Conservative Nationalism in Argentina, 1900-27,"HAHR 67:2 (May 1987), 271-300. To a largeextent, the nationalist attack on liberalcosmopolitanism and modernization was partof the moregeneralantipositivist ofearlytwentieth-century reaction LatinAmerica.Cf. Hale, "Political and Social Ideas," 414-22. 5. On conceptsofrace, cf. NancyStepan,The Idea of Race in Science:Great Britain 1800-1z960 (London: Macmillan, 1982), xii. For the quotation, see Stefan Collini,Liberalism and Sociology:L. T. Hobhouseand Political Argument in England 1880-1914 (Cambridge: CambridgeUniv. Press, 1979), i88; Elie Hal6vy,A Historyof the EnglishPeople in the Nineteenth Century,vol. 5, Imperialism and the Rise of Labour, 1895-1905 (New York: Barnes& Noble, 1961), 53.

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wide varietyof interpretations to which it has been subjected. Probably the most extendedview is its identification with the doctrinesof HerbertSpencer,undoubtedly one ofthe mostinfluential thinkers ofthe nineteenth century. His doctrine, in its mostextreme version,implieda in the processof selection of any intervention "scientific" condemnation in society operating as rigorously as in the natural world.This credo was in the UnitedStatesby economists fervently adopted and disseminated likeAndrew and businessmen likeWilliamGrahamSumner Carnegieand D. Rockefeller.6 John The Spencerianinterpretation, however, was by no means the only one. As Michael Freeden has shownin thecase ofthe EnglishNew Liband evolutionary doctrines erals,thesamebiological that upheldSpencer's schemewere used as an argument forstateintervention in socialand ecoof difnomicmatters, significantly abetting the ideologicalconformation currents Darwinism" ferent ofsocial reform. "Reform claimedthatsocial were the genuinerequisites and mutualaid, not competition, solidarity in humanevolution.7 forprogress Otherreformers linkedthe Spencerianinterpretation to the struggle between groups, not individuals,givingbirthto a mixtureof racialism,nationalism, and imperial expansionism, as exemplified by Theodore Rooseveltand JosephChamberlain withtheirideals of Anglo-Saxon imand theUnionoftheTeutonic This"exterperialism Peoples,respectively. also emphasizedsocial reform nal" Social Darwinism and the elimination of "internal" as a meansofachieving a standard of "national competition thatwouldensurevictory in thestruggle othergroups.8 efficiency" against
Himmelfarb, "Varieties ofSocial Darwinism, in cf.Gertrude 6. On Social Darwinism 1968),314-32; RobertM. Young,"MalMinids (Londonand New York:Knopf, herVictorian Past and and Social Theory," The Common Context ofBiological thusand the Evolutionists: Victorian A Definition," Present43 (May 1969), 109-41; R. J. Halliday,"Social Darwinism: 1967), 265-80. On Spencer's U.S. advoJournalof the Historyof Ideas 33:2 (April-June Thought (Boston:Beacon Press, inAmerican Social Darwinisin Hofstadter, cates,cf.Richard in Anglo-American Scienceand Myth Social Darwinism: 1955),5i-66; RobertC. Bannister,
Arbor: Univ. of Michigan Press, 1956), 43-46, 79-91. Studies 14:4 (June 1971), 389-405; James Allen Rogers, "Darwinism and Social Darwinism,"

in American Thought1865-1 90o (Ann and the General WelfareState:A Studyof Conflict

Social Thought (Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press, 1979), 97-113; Sidney Fine, Laissez Faire

Roots of 7. On the New Liberals,see Michael Freeden, "Biologicaland Evolutionary 4:4 (Nov. 1976); "Eugenicsand Progresthe New Liberalismin England,"PoliticalTheory Journal22:3 (1979); and The The Historical sive Thought:A Studyin IdeologicalAffinity," ClarendonPress, 1986), 76-116. (Oxford: New Liberalism:An Ideologyof Social Reform see Rogers, Darwinism" and Sociology,171-208. On "Reform See also Collini,Liberalism 267. and Social Darwinism," "Darwinism see Hal6vy, History oftheEnglishPeople,V, 41-68. 8. On Roosevelt and Chamberlain, English cf.BernardSemmel,Imperialand Social Reform: On "external" Social Darwinism, HarvardUniv. Press, 1960), 29-44; G. R. Thought1895-1914(Cambridge: Social-Imperial A Studyin British Politics and PoliticalThought, Searle, The Questfor NationalEfficiency:

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Still others saw the main threat to national interestsin the deterioration of the physical health and racial purityof the population, and sought the remedy in eugenics, the selective breeding of the population favoring the fitand discouraging the unfit in order to improvehuman stock. George Bernard Shaw summarized this position in his play Man and Superman (1903), claiming that "the socialization of the selective breeding of man" was "the only fundamental and possible socialism."9 The connection between the eugenics movement and social imperialism was established by Karl Pearson, one of the leading eugenicists, in his definitionof "the scientificview of a nation": an organized whole, kept up to a high pitch of internal efficiencyby ensuring that its numbers are substantiallyrecruited fromthe better stocks, and kept to a high pitch ofexternalefficiency by contest, chiefly by way of war with inferior races, and with equal races by the struggle fortrade routes and forthe sources ofraw materialand offood supply.'o In addition to absorbing these Anglo-Saxon intellectual currents, Argentine intellectuals, like so many others in Latin America, looked to France for guidance. The neo-Lamarckian concept of heredity and descent put forthby French scientists,with its emphasis on the inheritance of acquired characteristics, and the theory of degeneration espoused by Morel provided furtherexamples of the fusion of biological and social thought. As Nancy Stepan shows in her book on Latin American eugenics, the neo-Lamarckians' "soft"theoryof inheritance, which allowed for environmentalfactorsin the hereditaryprocess, suited perfectlythe Latin American progressives' optimismabout the reform of social conditions and the development of the sanitation sciences as means to racial improvement. On the other hand, neo-Lamarckianism could also justifythe view that race was inevitablydegenerating because of a poor environmentand the influence of "racial poisons," such as alcohol, venereal diseases, and harsh working conditions."
F. Stone, The Searchfor Social Peace: Reform France, cf. Judith Legislationin France, 1890-1914 (Albany: StateUniv.ofNew YorkPress,1985),46. 9. On eugenics,cf. G. R. Searle, Eugenicsand Politics in Britain,19oo-g914 (Leyden: Nordhoff, 1976),20-44; NancyStepan,The Idea of Race in Science, 111-39. GeorgeBernard Text(Harmondsworth Shaw, Man and Superman:A Comedyand a Philosophy: Definitive of social reform in 1899-1914 (Oxford: Blackwell,1971), 62-63. For similar interpretations

io. KarlPearson,NationalLifefrom theStandpoint ofScience(1901), quotedby Searle, Eugenicsand Politics, 36. ii. On the Frenchintellectual currents see Robert A. Nye,Crime,Madness,and PoliPrinceton Univ. ticsin ModernFrance:The MedicalConceptofNationalDecline(Princeton: Press, 1984),97-131. On "racialpoisons"see NancyStepan,"The Hour ofEugenics":Latin . 3. I chap Americaand the Movement for Racial Improvement, 1918-1 940 (forthcoming), forallowing me to read the manuscript ofherbook. am verygrateful to the author

and Baltimore: Penguin, 1946, reprint 1976), 245.

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Finally, the Italian school of criminology,with its identificationof crime as a biological pathology and its definitionof a typical "criminal man" based on anatomical features, also contributed to the Argentine concern with racial degeneration. This concern became a preoccupation during what is generally regarded as the country's "age of progress," producing a curious tension between the notions of progress and decline-a tension which, as Daniel Pick has shown, was also an importantpart of European cultural life at the 12 In Argentina,this tension is partlyexplained in that turn of the century. the very idea of progress had been based on a strong racial component: progress had been identifiedwith the preponderance of the "right" races in the Argentinepopulation.

Racial Ideas and the IdeologyofProgress

A belief in the cultural and biological superiorityof certain European peoples was not uncommon in regions of recent settlement. Australia, Canada, and the United States saw their immigrationpolicies shaped to a large extent by this belief, and by the turn of the century "it was still possible forintelligent,humane, and sensitivepeople to believe that Eurosuperiorityover nonpeans enjoyed an intrinsic,biologically transmitted Europeans." 13 In Latin America, with importantvariationsfromcountry to country regarding the value of mestizaje and the whitening ideal, this belief was also generally accepted.' In late nineteenth-century Argentina,the combinationofdiverse social interpretations of Darwinian biology and the optimism derived from Spencer's widely accepted law of progress provided an intellectual foundation forthe period ofexpansion, creatinga true "ideology ofprogress." 15
Pick, Faces ofDegeneration, 11-27. 13. A. T. Yarwoodand M. J. Knowling, Race Relations in Australia:A History (North Ryde, N. S.W., 1982), 235. See also M. A. Jones, AmericanImmigration (Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press, 1960); Donald Avery,"Dangerous Foreigners":European Immigrant Workersand Labour Radicalismin Canada 1896-1932 (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 1979); and HowardPalmer, Patterns ofPrejudice: A History ofNativism inAlberta(Toronto: 1982). McClelland& Stewart, and AlineHelg on Mexico, Bra14. See the essaysby Alan Knight, ThomasSkidmore, zil, Argentina, and Cuba, respectively, in Graham,Idea of Race in Latin America; also Charles A. Hale, The Transformation of Liberalismin Late Nineteenth-Century Mexico frente a (Princeton:PrincetonUniv. Press, 1989), 219-44; Aline Helg, "Los intelectuales Estudios la cuesti6nracial en el decenio de 1920: Colombia entreM6xico y Argentina," Sociales 4 (Mar. 1989), 38-53; ThomasSkidmore, Black intoWhite:Race and Nationality in BrazilianThought (New York:Oxford Univ.Press, 1974), 53-64; NancyStepan,Hour of Eugenics,chap. 5. 15. Cf. Marcelo Monserrat, "La mentalidad evolucionista: una ideologiadel progreso," in La Argentina del ochentaal centenario, ed. GustavoFerrari and Ezequiel Gallo (Buenos
12.

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But these expectations of unlimited material progress, fueledlargelyby thespectacular economic growth oftheperiod,wereparalleled bya growingconcern for therelative backwardness ofthecountry's political culture. Intellectuals, politicians, and statesmen connected bothto the racialcomin whatcan be describedas the "optimistic" positionof the population, and "pessimistic" racialinterpretations ofthecountry's future. Among the pessimists,European intellectuals were an important source of inspiration. Gustav Le Bon, in The Psychology of Peoplesprobablythe most influential workof racialtheory in Latin Americahad spelled out "the reasonswhyit is impossible foran inferior people to adopt a superiorcivilization." The "inevitable of the Spanish anarchy American republics" was due, according to Le Bon, to "themerefactthat the race is different and lacks the qualitiespossessed by the people of the United States.1.6.. In Argentina, Lucas Ayarragaray, a physician who,likemany ofhiscolleagues,combined hisprofession withintellectual and politicalactivities, wroteextensively on the problemofrace, closely the arguments following put forward by Le Bon. Argentina's politicaldeficiencies were ultimately due to "thehereditary constitution," and had to be treated as a problem of"biological Without the psychology." improving racialcomposition ofthecountry withEuropeanimmigrants, he stated,it wouldbe impossible to adaptWestern institutions, because thesehad dewhile Argentina's veloped "amidsthomogeneously superior populations" had a "degenerative propensity."17 intellectuals ManyArgentine choseto putmoreemphasis on thebenefits thatEuropean immigration had already granted. Thus,CarlosOctavio in ethnic to the difference Bunge, in NuestraAmerica(1903), attributed the struggles betweenBuenosAires(European)and the incomposition terior(Indian and mestizo)-Buenos Airesbenefiting the factthat from its Indian populationhad been devastated and tuby alcohol,smallpox, its ethnicelements." GabrielCarrasco,in his berculosis,thus"purifying to thereport ofthesecondnational census(1895),statedthat commentary the Latinrace predominated in thelocal population, although "Germanic,
Aires: EditorialSudamericana,1980), 785-818; JulioOrioneand FernandoA. Rocchi, "El en la Argentina," Darwinismo Todo es Historia226 (Apr.1986),8-28. i6. Gustave Le Bon, The Psychology of Peoples (London: Unwin, 1899), trans. of pp. 138Les lois psychologiques de levolutiondes peuples (Paris, 1894). Quotations from 52. Hale makes the claim forthe significance of Le Bon's workin "Politicaland Social Ideas," 398. 17. Lucas Ayarragaray, La anarquia argentina y el caudillismo (Buenos Aires: F. Laetnicaargentina jouane, 1904), 2, 276; "La constituci6n Archivosde Psiy sus problemas," ... ) (1912), 22-42, also published Archivos in bookform quiatriay Crirninologia (hereafter (BuenosAires:Lajouane, 1910); "La mestizaci6n de las razasen America y sus consecuencias Revistade Filosofia degenerativas," 2:1 (1916), 21-41.

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Anglo-Saxon, and Scandinavian racescontribute The to itsimprovement." result would be "a new and beautiful whiterace producedby the contact of all European nationsfecundated on Americansoil." Otherschose to influence: "From emphasizethe morepractical aspectsof thisbeneficial the fusion has issued a of the Latin geniuswiththe Anglo-Saxon energy new product,extremely capable in business,fullof practicalsense, and . . . ."18 veryopen to progress V. Gonzailez, Joaquin one ofthe mostinfluential voices in the debate on the social question,also wroteextensively on race. Although he supof immigration, he believed thatArgentina had "the ported regulation enormous ofnothavinginferior ethnicelements in herpopulaadvantage thatexplained heradvantage overotherLatin tion,"thisbeing the factor Americannations.19 EstanislaoZeballos, an influential Similarly, politiin 1906thatArgentina, cian and foreign affairs remarked minister, among all the Spanish Americannations, had been "the one to go forward the mostrapidly and withthegreatest because thecountry had a uniformity," homogeneous population "consisting ofpure-blooded Europeansor mes20 tizosproducedby thecrossing ofmorethanthreecenturies." That same year,the BuenosAiresHerald reproduced a conversation betweenthe Argentine in Washington, representative Dr. GarciaMerou, and the U.S. president, TheodoreRoosevelt, in whichbothagreed in attributing to the "purity oftheblood" and the"superiority ofthe race" the in Latin America.The indiscretion success ofArgentina ofthe Argentine Ministry of ForeignAffairs in making thisconversation public (partsofit were denied by the U.S. representative in BuenosAires)was, according to a British diplomat, an exampleof"theinborn oftheArgentines." vanity British diplomats, however, werenotexempt from somedegreeofvanity: theydid not disguise theirpride in reporting thatBritishinfluencein Argentina extendedto the biological field."Our influence is steadilyimthe race, thehabitsofthought, proving and thecharacter ofthe Stateand
"21 its inhabitants.

Ensayode psicologia social (BuenosAires: i8. Carlos OctavioBunge,Nuestra Amnrica. Vaccaro, 1918), 157-63. Gabriel Carrasco,in SegundoCenso de la Repiblica Argentina (Buenos Aires, 1898), II, xlv,xlviii.AlbertB. Martinezand Maurice Lewandowski,The Argentine in theTwentieth Century (London:Unwin,1911), 65. V. Gonzalez, "El juicio del siglo,"La Naci6n,May25, 1910,p. 13, and "El 19. Joaquin censo nacionaly la constituci6n," sec. io: "El problemade las razas,"Obras completasde Mercantil, 1935), JoaquinV. Gonzailez (hereafter OCJVG),25 vols. (BuenosAires:Imprenta XI, 392-97. to 20. EstanislaoZeballos, The Rise and Growth oftheArgentine Constitution, lectulre the St. Andrew'sDebating Society,BuenosAires,Sept. 29, 1906, publishedas a pamphlet (BuenosAires:AlbionPrinting Press, 1906), 29. to Sir EdwardGrey,Apr.20, 1906, 21. BuenosAiresHerald,Apr.20, 1906; F. Harford London:PublicRecordOffice (hereafter PRO), FO 371/5.W. Haggardto Sir EdwardGrey, Dec. i6, 1906, PRO, FO 371/194.

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It is interesting to note thatthosewho reactedagainstthe mostextremeracistinterpretations also based theirarguments on racial terms, thusreflecting the extent to whichracialcategories predominated in the intellectual outlookofthisperiod.22 Agustin Alvarez,forinstance, founding vice president of the University of La Plata and one of the mostrespected liberalintellectuals of his age, rejectedthe pervadinginfluence in the analysisofArgentine In his ofbiologicaldeterminism institutions. Transformacion de las razas en Ame'rica (1908), Alvarezattributed the politicaland institutional backwardness of Latin Americato cultural factorssuchas theundisputed domination oftheCatholicchurch, and stated was thekeyto genuineracialimprovement: thata cultural transformation "Una raza de hombres no se mejoradurablemente por la cruza con otras ya mejoradas,como los ganados,sinopor la mejorade sus propiasideas, former President CarlosPellegrini the Similarly, Argentine questioned "the superexaggerated interpretations inspiredby Le Bon. Lamenting ficialand incomplete examination of the facts"upon whichLe Bon had based his analysis,Pellegrini accused the Frenchwriter ofusing"a number of inaccurateand prejudicedfacts,whichhave been gatheredfrom the writings of a dyspeptic and ill-tempered journalist."24 Pellegrini denied any fundamental distinction betweenAnglo-Saxon and Latin races; he believedin "theunity ofthe humanrace,"whichled on the contrary, himto an optimistic conclusion aboutthefuture ofArgentina: The hazards of life,in the courseof centuries, havingdispersedthe race throughout the earth,it has formed, primitive underthe influence of circumstances, new types,whichin the course of timehave metand mingled, to form new crossesin their turn, whichas a matter offactare onlymodalities race .... Thus this ofa common primitive ofbecoming,withthe Republicpossessesall the requisiteconditions nations passage oftime,one ofthegreatest oftheearth.25 visionsof and optimistic Race, therefore, pervadedboth pessimistic theArgentine and itsinfluence wentbeyondideological and politifuture, cal divisions.Socialistintellectuals sharedmanyofthe asand politicians
I am indebtedto NancyStepanfor callingmyattenition to thisparadox. "A human race cannotbe genuinely improved by its fusionwithan alreadyimproved race, as if it were cattle,but by the betterment of its own ideas, sentiments, and customs.... de las razas en America(Barcelona: AgustinAlvarez,La transformnaci6n Granada, 1906), 153, 156. 24. Carlos Pellegrini, Introduction to Martinez and Lewandowski, TheArgentine in the Twentieth xliii-xliv. The sourceused by Le Bon thatirritated so much Century, Pellegrini was TheodoreChild, The SpanishAmerican Republics(New York:Harper,1891), trans.of Les republiqueshispano-americaines (Paris,1891). 25. Pellegrini, Introduction, li-lii.
22. 23.

sentimientosy costumbres. , , ," 23

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sumptions oftheevolutionist-racialist approach expounded byliberalsand conservatives. Leading Argentine socialists reflected in theirpronouncementsthe importance of the principles of Darwinism and biologyin the conformation of theirparticular brandof socialism. Alfredo Palacios,the first socialistcongressman elected in Latin America,made in one of his first interventions in the Chamberof Deputies a particular interpretation of the interaction of Darwinismand socialism.Socialism,he said, wanted"equalityat the starting point,so that,according to the rules of Darwiniantheory, the fittest shallprevailand become the best." JuanB. Justo, founder of the Socialistparty, did not go thatfar,but began his book Teoriay practicade la historia a chapter on "thebiologi(1gog) with cal bases ofhistory." Justo put forth a biologicalinterpretation ofhuman and Darwinianideas, but rejectedthe idea history based on Malthusian whichhe considered in scienofa racialhierarchy, "a defense ofprivilege tific garb."AugustoBunge, socialistdiputadoand a leadingforcein the Departamento Nacionalde Higiene,similarly claimedthathumanethics shouldbe based on biology.UnlikeJusto, he did condemncoloredraces as anthropologically and morally inferior to Caucasians.26 another socialist JoseIngenieros, writer and one ofthemostinfluential Latin American ofthisperiod,revealedhowfarthenew evointellectuals lutionary ideas, and theprinciple ofthestruggle forlifein particular, had thenew outlook gone in forming whenhe declaredthe republican trilogy . . . scientifiquement of"liberte,egalite,fraternite absurde:Le determinismenie la liberte, la biologienie l'egalite, et le principe de la lutte pour la tousles etresvivants, nielafraternite."27Ingenievie, auquel sontsoumnis roswas also one oftheforemost advocates ofracialinterpretations ofsocial The superiority ofthewhiterace,he said, made inevitable in phenomena. the Americasthe progressive substitution of the indigenous races, as exofan "Argentine whiterace."28 He playedan emplified by the emergence important part in the fusion of biology, and criminology that psychiatry, characterized the emergent fieldoflegal medicine. Argentine
26. Palacios' speech is recordedin the Diario de sesionesde la Ciinara de Diputados (hereafter DSCD), 1904, I, 465. JuanB. Justo, Teoria y practica de la historia,ist ed. (Buenos Aires:Lotitoy Barberis,1909; 2nd ed. 1915), 13-52. Augusto Bunge, "Los fundamentosbiol6gicos de la moral," Revistade Filosofia1:2 (1915),69-83; idem., El cultode la vida (BuenosAires:Perrotti, 1915),171-72. ". . . determinism 27. denies liberty, biologydeniesequality, and the principleof the struggle for life,rulingall livingbeings,deniesfraternity." JoseIngenieros, La legislation du travaildans la republiqueargentine (Paris:Cornely,1906), x, emphasis added. See also RicaurteSoler,El positivismo argentino (BuenosAires:Paid6s, 1968), 167-97. 28. Ingenieros,"La formaci6n de una raza argentina," Revistade Filosofta1:2 (1915), 464-83. On the idea of a distinct"Argentine race," see also Wenceslao Tello, "La raza argentina," Atlfintida 8 (1912), 37-40, and Norberto Pifiero, "Nacionalismo y raza," Revista Argentina de CienciasPoliticas 4 (1912), 261-64.

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Race, Crime, and the Social Question In the prevailing intellectual climate,the problems posed by the emerging Argentine socialquestionwere inevitably associated withracialideas. In 1908, a British observer statedthatlaborunrest was the resultoflabor being "recruited fromthe lower class of immigrants, and from a race notremarkable for stability," an interpretation thatwas widelysharedby in Argentine intellectuals and politicians. These trends werealso reflected literature, withnovelslike Eugenio Cambaceres'En la sangre (1887) or Martel'sBolsa (1890), whichdisplayed Juliain marked racialprejudicesin The number theirtreatment of Italianand Jewish immigrants. ofItalians and Spaniardsarrestedby the police forcriminal offenses and anarchist activism thefirst during yearsofthiscentury reinforced thepopularbelief in the intrinsic "criminal tendencies" ofLatinimmigrants.29 schoolofcriminology Here, theroleplayedbytheItalianpositivist deservescareful The distinctive consideration. feature ofthisschool,which had its first in Lombroso's declaration ofprinciples CriminalMan (1876), was the treatment of crimeas a biologicalpathology to be studiedempirically, discardingthe metaphysical notionsof freewill or individual withthe responsibility and theclassicaltradition ofcriminal law associated worksof Beccaria and Bentham.Criminals, not crime,were, according to Lombroso,the properobject of study.He thusdevelopeda detailed accountofanatomical stigmata thatcharacterized the typical uomo delinquente.These features, including a largejaw, a low and narrow forehead, and large ears, helped to identify for thosewho had an innateproclivity crime. Once theywere identified, theirpunishment had nothing to do withtheirindividual responsibility-their criminal tendency havingbeen determined-but was insteada necessary measureof social biologically were adoptedby In Argentina, theprinciples ofpositivist criminology juristsand hygienists concernedwithproblems and social of criminality unrest.The late i88os saw the founding ofthe Sociedad de Antropologia of the Asistencia Juridica by JoseMaria Ramos Mejia (director Puiblica),
Manchester as a Market(Manchester: 29. The Britonis N. L. Watson,The Argentine andJews, cf.Tulio Halperin-Donghi, Univ.Press,1908), 12-15, emphasis added. On Italians y aceleraci6n del procesomod"% Para que la inmigraci6n? Ideologiay politicainmigratoria Jahrbuch fur Geschichte von Staat, Wirtschaft ernizador:el caso argentino (1810-1914)," en und Gesellschaft lateinamerikas 13 (1976), 468-72; and GladysOnega, La inmigraci6n see JuliaKirk tendencies," la literatura argentina (BuenosAires,1979). On Latin"criminal and LymanL. Johnson, "Changing CriminalPatterns in BuenosAires, 1890Blackwelder Studies14:2 (Nov. 1982),359-80. 1914, JournalofLatinAmerican of Man (New York:Norton,1981), 122-42; 30. StephenJayGould, The Mismeasure A. Davis, Conflict Italy(Atlantic John and Control:Law and Order in Nitneteenth-Century Highlands, NJ: Humanities Press, 1988),326-38. protection.30

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of Labor), and Rodolfo Jose Nicolas Matienzo(laterof the Department Rivarola(laterdirectorof the RevistaArgentina de Ciencias Politicas), amongothers.Luis Maria Drago's Hombresde presa (i888) and Antonio Dellepiane's Causas del delito(1892) were the first worksof Argentine juristswho adhered to the new school.31The publication of a scientific journal, CriminalogiaModerna, in 1898 markedthe beginningof the in BuenosAiresby PietroGori, school'sexpansion.The journal,founded listedamong an Italianlawyer who sympathized withpeaceful anarchism, its collaborators the leadingItaliancriminologists (Lombroso,Ferri,Raffaele Garofalo,Napoleone Colajanni) and united many of the leading Argentine criminologists: Dellepiane, Drago, Rivarola,Osvaldo Pifiero, the JuanVucetich(whodevelopedfingerprinting as a meansofperfecting and Ingenieros. identification ofcriminals), anthropometric adhered to the basic tenetsof the Italian Argentine criminologists its leaders. Lomschool and receivedencouragement and supportfrom and wrote a prologuefor Drago's book and for Corbroso translated nelio Moyano Gacituia's Delincuencia argentinaante algunas cifras y in Argentina. In 1902 Ingenieros teorias(1905); Ferrilectured extensively foundedthe Archivosde Psiquiatriay Criminologia, a journalthatcontinueduntil 1913,when it was succeeded by the Revistade Criminologia, Psiquiatriay MedicinaLegal as a meeting ground forcriminologists, alienists, and hygienists concerned withthesocialquestion.In 1907 PresidentFigueroaAlcorta director ofthe newlycreated appointed Ingenieros Instituto de Criminologia, whichbecame the institutional locationofthe In 1908, in the prologueto La mala vida en Buenos Aires, by school.32 another member oftheinstitute, Eusebio Gomez,Ingenieros summarized some of the new school'smaintenets.Criminals ignoredthattheywere thevictims ofa complex determinism, based on bothheredity and milieu, la fatalidad "espiritus que sobrellevan de herenciasenfermizas o sufren la carcomainexorable de las miserias ambientes." Ethical considerations were oflittleuse in treating theseindividuals; crimehad to be seen as an abnormal expression oftheprinciples ofthe struggle forlife.33 crimiFollowingthe teachings of theirItaliancolleagues,Argentine of freewill and moralresponsibility nologists replaced the principles of the classical school withthe idea of "social defense"as the justification forpunishment. They also extendedthisapproachto the problemof aned. juridico," in El movimniento positivista argentino, 31. Cf. Enrique Mari,"El marco H. Biagini(BuenosAires:EditorialBelgrano,1985), 186-87. 32. Archivos ... (1907), 257-63. or suffering the inexorabledetepathology 33. "Spiritsmarkedby a fatalhereditary Pr6logoto Eusebio G6mez, La JoseIngenieros, environment." rioration of theirmiserable Roldan,1908),5-15. mala vida en BuenosAires(BuenosAires:Editorial

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archism. Lombrosohad arguedthatthefeatures thatcharacterized innate criminals could also be foundin anarchists. The assassinations of several European heads ofstateduring the 189os had generated seriousconcern about the lack of proper"social defense."Franciscode Veyga,professor of legal medicineat the University of BuenosAires,describedthe probas an issue ofsocialdefense lem ofanarchism thatwas completely outside the social question;the social questionwas a complexproblemdestined to be solved by politicalmeans,while "la delincuencia anarquista"was "a problemof social hygieneto be dealt withby the police exclusively." Anarchists were consideredpsychologically proneto "emotional crisis," whichcould lead them-as in theassassination attempt againstPresident As fortheirphysical feaQuintana-to an "abnormal spiritual condition." In ears were seen as "an evidentsignof degeneration." tures,deformed SimonRadowitzky, who killedPolice ChiefRamonL. Falconin 1gog, "an ofthe inferior in his forehead, a excessivedevelopment jaw, a depression were takento reveal"thestigma lightfacialasymmetry" ofcriminality."34 The extreme biological determinism ofLombroso was highly disputed, on whoplaced muchmoreemphasis particularly by Frenchcriminologists, the environmental The old deinterpretation oftheorigins ofcriminality. bate aboutthe roleofheredity in theorigins and environment ofcrimereappeared amongArgentine A leadingItaliancriminologist, criminologists. in Criminalogia the Napoleone Colajanni,writing Moderna,contradicted exaggerated claimsthathad been made about the deterministic powers of race on the origins boththe possibility of ofcrime.He arguedagainst scientifically the effect of race and environment on humans establishing and the idea ofa fixed racialhierarchy.35
34. On the Europeanassassinations, see Daniel Pick,"The Faces ofAnarchy: Lombroso and the Politics ofCriminal Science in Post-Unification Italy," History Workshop 21 (Spring fromFranciscode Veygain "Anarquismo 1986), 68. Quotations y anarquistas;estudio de antropologia criminal," Analesdel Departamento Nacionalde Higiene20 (Sept. 1897),43755; "Delito politico:el anarquista SalvadorPlanas Virellaque atent6contra la vida del PreArchivos... sidenteDr. ManuelQuintanael 11 de agostode 1905. Estudiom6dico-legal," de Quir6s,"Psicologia (1906), 513-48; and C. Bernaldo del crimen anarquista," Archivos. . . "Documentos:autopsiadel anarquistaMateo Morral (1913), 122-26. On physical features, (m6dicosforenses del Cuerpo Consultivode Madrid),"Archivos. . . (1907), 108-9. On Radowitzky, see "Alegatodel AgenteFiscal, Dr. ManuelBeltran, en Radovizky, Sim6n.Por homicidioen las personasde Ram6nL. Falc6ny AlbertoLartigau.Dic. 31, 10og. Buenos Aires,Archivo Generalde la Naci6n,Tribunal Criminal, leg. no. 5, 1872-1909, p. 172. 35. For the ideas of othermembers of the Italianschool,see FrancisA. Allen, "Raffaele Garofalo," and Thorsten ed. Sellin,"Enrico Ferri," both in Pioneersin Criminology, HermannMannheim (London: Stevens,1960). For a comparison ofthe Italianand French schools of criminology and an accountof theirconfrontations, see Nye, Crime, Madness, and Politics,and Ruth Harris,Murdersand Madness: Medicine,Law, and Societyin the Fin de Siecle (New York:OxfordUniv. Press, 1989), 80-124. Napoleone Colajanni'sessay is titled"Raza y delito,"Criminalogia Moderna 12 (Oct. 1899),350-53. Colajannihad ar-

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however, pointed to the correlationbetween Argentinecriminologists, immigrationand increasing criminalityas a proof of the connection between race and crime. Although they did not ignore economic and geographic factors,they saw criminal tendencies as inevitablytransmittedby heredity,thereby creating a permanent danger to society. They expected this danger to be attenuated somewhat by the benign influence of "Saxon immigration,"but mainly by a policy of immigrationcontrol. An article by the Cuban criminologistFernando Ortiz published in Archivos de Psiquiatria y Crirninologia (1907) revealed the extent of the agreement on the issue of immigrationand crime (although Latin immigrationwas not the problem in this case): the black and yellow races, stated Ortiz, had a strongerproclivitytoward crime because "their primitiveand barbaric psyches lack the altruisticelement" possessed by the white race.36 The claims for immigrationcontrol went beyond the issue of crime, races" was extended to non-Latin immigrants. and the concept of "inferior Russian Jews, for instance, were considered a "physiologically degenerated race" and "a moral and economic danger," given their practice of usury. Many also attributedthe wave of labor unrest during the "Semana Tragica" of January 1919 to the influence of Russian-Jewishimmigrants and their support of "maximalismo." 37 The preferenceforEuropean immiby degeneracy established betweencrimeand physical gued in Italyagainstthe correlation 337. In thisarticle, Colajanni and Control, othermembers ofthe school.Cf. Davis, Conflict the growing Paul Topinard as one ofhis sources,showing quoted the Frenchanthropologist the Italianschool. influence ofthe Frenchapproachwithin connection, see C. MoyanoGacit6a, "La delincuencia 36. On the immigration-crime . . . (1905), 162-81;G6mez, La mala vida, y teorias," Archivos argentina ante algunascifras en Buenos Aires 1885 a 1910. Al margen 29-30; Miguel A. Lancelotti,"La criminalidad de Ciencias Politicas4 (1912). See also Carl Solberg, de la estadistica," RevistaArgentina in Argentina and Chile, 1890-1914," HAHR 49:2 "Immigration and UrbanSocial Problems "El factor econ6micoen la cf.Lancelotti, (May 1969), 221. On economicand otherfactors, Moderna 16 (Feb. 1900), 495-500; MoyanoGacit6a, producci6ndel delito,"Criminalogia . .. (19o6), 487-99. On en la criminalidad Archivos "Las influencias mesol6gicas argentina," en la criminalidad," Nacional25 (1898),401-2, Revista see Lancelotti, "La herencia heredity, Moderna and 26 (1898), 375; Ricardodel Campo, "La herenciadel delito,"Criminalogia see MoyanoGacit6a, "La delincuenciaargentina," control, 13-14 (1899). On immigration Revista de CienciasPoliticas Argentina en BuenosAires," 178; E. de Cires, "La inmigraci6n Boletindel Museo 4 (1912), 735-46; FranciscoStach,"La defensasocial y la inmigraci6n," desde el punto Social Argentino 5:55-56 (1916),361-89. FernandoOrtiz,"La inmigraci6n Archivos. . . (1907), 332-40. On FernandoOrtiz and racial and de vista criminol6gico," and Cuba, 1880-1930: ideas in Cuba, see Aline Helg, "Race in Argentina criminological in Graham,Idea of Race in Latin America,52Theory,Policies, and PopularReaction," by an about the superiority ofthewhiterace in humanevolution 53. For similar arguments Revistade Argentine writer, see Ram6nMelgar,"El tipo vencedoren la especie humana," Filosofia1:1 (1915),431-41. en zg9o, 2 vols. (Buenos 37. Carlos Urienand Ezio Colombo,La repuiblica argentina Rightand the Aires: Maucci, 1910), I, 18o-81; Sandra McGee Deutsch, "The Argentine Studies18:1 (May 1986), 113-34. Jews, JournalofLatinAmerican 1919-1933,"

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gration, sanctioned bythe 1853constitution, appearsto havehad practical consequencesin at least one instance.In 1912, answering a requestfrom the British minister in BuenosAires,the Ministry of ForeignAffairs denied thebenefits granted bytheLey de Inmigracion (e.g., accommodation on the groundsthat, to 59 Sikhimmigrants at the Hotel de Inmigrantes) giventheirorigin, theywere notcoveredby theconstitutional clause.38 in Buenos The urban concentration of the newcomers, particularly Aires,was also a cause foralarm.In 1895, 59 percentof the immigrants in 1914thepercentage were livingin urbancenters; had grown to almost 70, while 57.3 percentof the whole population was urban,accordingto the national census.39 Lucas Ayarragaray saw theexcessiveurbanconcentration as the main cause of the Argentine social question;a "scientific" selection and distribution ofimmigration in orderto avoidthatconcentrationwas the onlysolution The alternative to the new problems. was the appearanceof"thecriminal type"or,as itwas describedin Congress,the "'modern urban monster," engendered by the populatedindustrial cities of Europe and transplanted to Argentina as a consequenceof too-liberal The 1876 Ley de Inmigracion an insufficient tool for was considered the achievement The law prohibited of saferimmigration controls. entry a contagious from to personssuffering disease, thoseunable to work,the demented,beggars,criminals, and thoseover6o yearsof age unaccompanied by theirfamilies.Enforcement of the law appears to have been lenient.Between November 1907and June1910, forinstance, of662, 170 immigrants arriving in Argentina only65 were excluded in accordance withthe law.4' When immigration restrictions were finally enacted, as in the 1902 Ley de Residenciaand the 1910 Ley de DefensaSocial,many called critics forcomplementary sociallegislation on issuessuchas working conditions, hygiene,and housing.42 Theirarguments differed according to theirpar38. R. Towerto Sir EdwardGrey,Feb. 9, 1912., PRO, FO 118/308. 39. TercerCenso Nacional,I, p. 123. 40. Lucas Ayarragaray, "Socialismo obrera(1912)," in Cuestiones argentino y legislaci6n y problemasargentinos contemporaneos, 2 vols. (Buenos Aires: L. J. Rosso, 1937), I, 30. DSCD, 1910, I, 6o. 41. Memoriadel Ministerio de Agricultura Noviembre Aires, 1go7-Abril 1910 (Buenos 1910), 185-89. On the exclusion ofbeggarscf."Orden del Dia 4 de Abrilde 1896,"Ordenanzas generalesde la policia de BuenosAires z88o-iz907 (Capital Federal, 1908),204. 42. These laws were passed during peaks ofanarchist activism, and theirgoal was the exclusionof anarchists, not of immigrants on racialmotives, although the languageof race to be present in theanalysis continued ofanarchists as biologically degenerated. On the Ley de Residenciacf. Iaacov Oved, "El trasfondo hist6rico de la ley 4144 de residencia," DesarrolloEcon6mico61 (1976), 123-50;Carlos SanchezViamonte, Biografia de una ley antiargentina.La ley4144 (BuenosAires:Nuevas EdicionesArgentinas, 1956), 17-63. Argentina

immigrationpolicies.40

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provided ticularideologicalor politicalviews. Racial ideas nevertheless a commonlanguagein whichto expressthese proposalsand an aura of respectability. Some intellectual scientific prestige thatgavethemgreater postulated the principle ofcompetition advocateswantedto complement withthe ideals of of Social Darwinism by the Spencerianinterpretation tie,"wroteJoseD. "Theredoes existanother solidarity and cooperation: life."43 Others,echohelp in thestruggle for Bianchiin 1899,"themutual and Reform Darwinfornational efficiency ing the European movements in thephysical health witha national interest ism,connected socialreform was to be foundednot on an appeal to of the population.Social reform interneedsbuton thenational principles ofsocialjusticeor on individual est in preventing racial degeneration through the physicaldecay of the population.The claim was that"the economicpower and psychological of strength dependuponthepsycho-physiological structure ofthenations in two expression theircomponents."4 This concernfoundits strongest and laborlegislation. areas: publichygiene Hygiene,Labor Legislation,and the NationalInterestin Racial Strength ofheredity thatemphasizedthe inheritance The neo-Lamarckian theory ofacquiredcharacteristics thefusion and "nurture" facilitated of"nature" in the discussionof social policies.This fusion implieda combination of as the targets for andthe socialenvironment programs aimed at heredity could advojust as criminologists racial improvement. In this context, cate the exclusion ofundesired couldjustify many immigrants, hygienists it was in the nationalinterest to of theirproposalsforsocial legislation: These proposals publichealthand racialpurity. preserveand strengthen coveredlabor legislation to avoid the effects ofharshworking conditions the provision on the workers'hereditary of medical and constitutions; and public campaigns withsimilar arguments; welfareservices, justified and venerealdiseases. against"racialpoisons"likealcoholism exwitnessed an important The secondhalfofthe nineteenth century and publichealth.The creationof the pansionof stateactionin hygiene Nacionalde in 1852 (laterthe Departamento Consejo de Higiene Puiblica
agreements in 1894withItaly,and in 1902 withthe United had subscribedto international of in the repression cooperation States and 15 otherLatin Americannations,to promote anarchism. 43. Jos6D. Bianchi,"Cuesti6nsocial,"La escuelapositiva(1899),quoted by Leopoldo Univ.ofOklahomaPress, 1963),227. Mind(Norman: Zea, The LatinAnwerican y el modode combatirlas 44. FedericoFigueroa,Las huelgasen la republicaargentina 1906),244-45. (BuenosAires:J.Tragant,

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Higiene) and the Asistencia Pu'blica de Buenos Aires in 1883 was followed by the extension of theirpowers of inspection and controlafterthe terrible epidemics of 1871 and i88i. Hygienists like Eduardo Wilde and Emilio Coni did not hesitate to expand the concept of public health to include "the physical and moral welfare of the population."45 With the emergence of the social question in the early twentiethcentury,hygieniststook up social issues. Here was an opportunityto improve the racial composition of the countrythrougha series of positive reforms that would overcome the negative aspects of heredity. Augusto Bunge, a socialist leader who, as mentioned, exemplifiedthe social-biological outlook, called, fromhis post in the Departamento Nacional de Higiene, for improved hygienic conditions in the workplace as a means of preserving the racial strength of the population. Bunge produced numerous statistical records on the hygienic conditions, or, as he put it, "the conditions of physiological welfare," in different industries. He was very critical of general conditions, calling for "a collective social effort" to overcome the existing shortcomings. He extended this analysis to the problem of alcoholism, which he considered the most serious consequence of the social question. As a socialist, he attributedthis problem to the capitalist organization of society.46 The laws of heredity,Bunge asserted, condemned to physical degradation, crime, madness, and ultimatelyracial degeneration those who carried the stigma of alcoholism. In typical neo-Lamarckian fashion, Bunge saw alcoholism as a culturally acquired phenomenon (a consequence of the alienation induced by the capitalist system) that was then transmittedgenetically,followingthe laws of heredity.47
and HumanWelfare: The Asistencia P6blica and 45. ErnestA. Crider,"Modernization BuenosAires,1883-1910" (Ph.D. diss., Ohio StateUniversity, 1976),26-go; CarlosEscud6, "Health in Buenos Aires in the Second Half of the Nineteenth Century," in Social Welfare, 1850-1950: Australia, Argentina, and Canada Compared,ed. D.C.M. Platt(London: Macmillan,1989),60-70. For the evolution ofpublichygiene legislation duringthe period see also Nicolas Lozano, "La higienep6blica en la Argentina," Anales del Departamento Nacional de Higiene20 (1913),991-1079. On Wilde and Coni see HectorRecalde, Higiene ptiblicay secularizaci6n (BuenosAires:CentroEditorial de Am6rica Latina, 1989), 17. 46. AugustoBunge,"El trabajoindustrial en BuenosAires," Anales del Departamnento Nacional de Higiene11 (1904), 339-64, 387-410,435-50; "La secci6nde higienesocial. Sus objectivosy sus primeros resultados," Anales del Departamnento Nacional de Higiene 18:1 (1911), 99-116. The Socialistparty actively campaigned against alcoholism. Cf. "El alcoholismo,"La Vanguardia,Sept. 2, 1g9o; Donald F. Weinstein, JuanB. Justo y su epoca (Buenos Aires:Fundaci6nJuanB. Justo, 1978),99. 47. Augusto Bunge, "El alcoholismo y sus proyecciones sociales," Archivos... (1905), 667-94. For examplesofthe campaign against alcoholism mounted by hygienists and criminologists see also Miguel A. Lancelotti, "Alcoholismo y delito.(Contribuci6n al estudiode las causas de la delincuencia)," Archivos . . . (190o),415-45; VictorDelfino,"Alcoholismo y descendencia," Revistade Criminologia 2 (1915),579-84; Belisario J. Montero, "Notas para la lucha contrael alcoholismo," Archivos. . . (1905), 594-99; GermanAnschutz,"Breve contribuci6n a la lucha contra el alcoholismo en la rep6blicaargentina," Anales del Departa-

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At theotherend ofthepolitical spectrum, CarlosPellegrini displayed a similaroutlookwhile considering JoaquinV. Gonzailez'projectfor a laborcode. Pellegrini praisedsomeofitsproposals-such as Sundayrest or regulation offemaleand childlabor-because theyaimed notat a particulargroupbut at "the benefit of the race, to avoid its weaknessand degeneration." BelisarioRoldain, a conservative diputado,discussing his projectforinsurance on workaccidentsin 1902, emphasizedthe importanceofsociallegislation because itwas "a timeoftrueethnicrevolution, ofa racialtransformation."48 Working conditions forwomenand children were an issue centralto racialconcerns: "thefewer proletarian womenthereare, the stronger our race and our social morality.'"49 Duringthe debate on the law regulating working conditions forwomenand children (Ley 5291), Antonio Pifiero, one of the diputadoswho supported the bill, explainedthatthe goal of labor legislation was "a commongoal of social, hygienic, and biological preservation, to maintain our capitalof collectivelife,avoidingits degeneration, and ensuringits normaldevelopment and evolutionin the
" 50 future.

AlfredoPalacios, the socialist diputadowho promoted manyof these projectsin Congress,also focusedon racialpreservation. During debate on the bill establishing Sundayrest(Ley 4661), he warnedthe chamber aboutworkplace strain "a sickorganism and itsendproduct, willinevithat withan obviousdetriment tablylead to degeneration, to thespecies ...." In his proposalsforan eight-hour workday, whichhe presentedto Congress in 1906 and 1915, he again insistedthathe was following scienestablishedprinciples, and "whichwill guide us to a physically tifically psychologically superior species."Otheradvocates called formilitary conas a necessaryremedyto physicaldeterioration; scription its attendant stimulant to the an important vigorousphysicalexercisewas considered moraland intellectual behindthe healthoftheLatinrace,seen as lagging in thisarea.5' Anglo-Saxons
mentoNacional de Higiene20 (1913),
909-21;

adecuadas para combatir el alcoholismo," Revista de Criminologia 1 (1914), 334-41. 48. Pellegrini 1846-1906. Obras. 5 vols., ed. A. Rivero Astengo (Buenos Aires, 1941),

L. Palacios,"Medios e instituciones Alfredo

II, 6oi. BelisarioRoldan,"Accidentes de Trabajo,"in DiscursosCompletos (Buenos Aires: EditorialSopena Argentina, 1929), 77.
argentina," Revista Argentina de Ciencias Politicas 11 (1915), 449-58. 50. DSCD 1906, I, 803-9. 51. DSCD 1904, II, 476-616, and Jos6 Pannettieri, Las primneras leyes obreras (Buenos Aires: Centro Editorial de America Latina, 1984), 29. DSCD 1915, I, 515. Oll illilitary service,see R. E. Cranwell,"El servicio militar obligator-io," Estudios1 (1901), 69-78.

Enrique Feinman,"Medicina social. La defensade la maternidad obreray la legislaci6n

49. Elvira V. L6pez, "La mujer y la ensefianza industrial," Estudios 1 (1901), 390-99;

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memberof the Socialistparty, Manuel Ugarte,anotherprominent choseto emphasizetheconnection betweenpublichealthand thenational nationalism, and social reinterest through a combination of racialism, he based his argument forstateregulation ofworking form. For instance, the stockfrom physical hoursand conditions on the need for"preserving thatwill determine our degeneration and bringing up strong generations as a means taxation victory." Ugartefavored the imposition ofprogressive socialreforms: sacrifices necessary ofredistributing wealthand financing because "theinterweaving of made bythe"wealthy classes"werejustified If proall the different interests is the purestsourceofnational energy." was justified in timesofemergency, Ugarteasserted,"it gressive taxation pauperism and degenis onlyfairthatwe use it in our socialwar against thepermanent eracy,whichimply defeat oftherace."Again,the solution of the social question is for Ugarteinextricably linked to the national interest: in the nationalproblem. The labor questioncannotbringdisinterest and advantageous attributes [ventajascorporaVictory ofour country . . . . A nationstrengthens itselfin tivas] are vasos comunicantes classes;but thesein proportion to thewelfare accordedto itsworking turncan onlyachievethatwelfare iftheycontribute to theprogress of theircountry.52 Concernwiththephysical degeneration oftheracewas one ofthecentralthemesoftheeugenicsmovement, currents oftheintellectual another and social reform promoting the connection betweenbiologicaltheories at the turnofthe century. Eugenics in Argentina In termsof politicalresults,the British foreugenicswas not movement very successful.Its only victory came in 1913 withthe passing of the In the UnitedStates,by contrast, Mental Deficiency Act.53 i6 statesby sterilization ofcer1917 had passed legislation mandating thecompulsory taincategories ofpersonsdesignated as "hereditarily unfit." Mostofthose or ignored until lawswere eventually repealed,declaredunconstitutional, the 1920S, when the movement In Latin campaignedmore effectively. these ideas had drawninterest since the earlytwentiAmerica,although
52. Manuel Ugarte,El porvenirde la AmericaLatina (Valencia:F. Sempere, 1g9o), 278-79; 280-81; 286-87; also idem., "Cuesti6nsocial y cuesti6nnacional(1912)," in La naci6n latinoamericana, ed. Norberto Galasso (Caracas: BibliotecaAyacucho,1978), 199202.

53. Stepan,Idea ofRace in Science,121.

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eth century,"the hour of eugenics" arrived only afterWorld War I when the first eugenics societies began.54 In Argentina, as we have seen, the emergence of the social question at the turn of the centurywas connected to a wide varietyof racial interpretations, and eugenics provided scientific argumentsforpeople searching for rational answers to the new problem. In the Argentine anarchist movement, debate raged over the meritsof the rational control of human procreation. Some advocates justified the theory of neo-Malthusianism, as the idea was known, because it followed "the law of evolution of the species": "If man improves other animal species, why shouldn't he improve his own?" Others opposed the idea because it went against "the laws of nature"; but generally it was defended as a rational means of advancing social change or praised as wise guidance forthe "rationaland limited procreation of workerswho want to avoid the horrorsof hunger, prostitution, and crime."55 Among criminologistsit was not unusual to discuss the merits of "an artificialselection, more efficient and quicker than natural selection, to be realized through the sterilizationof degenerate individuals."56An Argentine jurist concluded that Galton (founder of the eugenics movement in England) and Darwin had proved that the influence of heredity was inescapable in human beings and animals alike. Social life, therefore, required elimination of those criminal types that through heredity could "infect" society and cause its moral and physical degeneration. Others rejected this as extreme, defending the human organism's rightto integrity as an inseparable part of the rightto life. Catholic writerscondemned this "alleged social science" as "depraved and homicidal." But for those who supported eugenics, only "ridiculous sentimentality or a lyricalliberalism" could oppose the compulsive sterilizationof the degenerados.57
laws. KennethM. Lud54. By 1931, 30 stateshad at some timepassed sterilization Hopkins Johns Appraisal (Baltimore: merer,Geneticsand AmericanSociety.A Historical eugenicssee also MarkHaller,Eugenics:HerediAmerican Univ.Press,1972), 87. On North RutgersUniv. Press, 1963), and in AmericanThought(New Brunswick: tarian Attitudes (New and theUses ofHumanHeredity Daniel J.Kevles,In theName ofEugenics:Genetics NancyStepan,Hour ofEugenics,chap. 2. 1985). On the societies, York:Knopf, La Protesta, Jan. by AurelioRuiz, "Neo-malthusianismo," was justified 55. The theory 11, 1907; opposed in La Protesta,Jan. 16, 1907; defendedby Manuel M. Boyant,"Es social?" La Prode la transformaci6n como precipitante admisibleel neo-malthusianismo Mar. 28, 10og; La Protesta, o neo-Malthus?" testa,Jan. 12, 90og, and JuanBiere,"Malthus and praised in "Palinodia eterna,"El Rebelde, Jan. 1, 1907. See also Elvira V. L6pez, 21 (1913),313-23. Boletindel Museo Social Argentino "Eugenismo," de los degenerala reproducci6n 56. AngeloZucarelli,"Necesidady mediosde impedir eugenicade Prevenci6n dos,"Archivos... (1902), 227-34. Also,the reviewofA. Pefialoza, (1916),750. la criminalidad en el Peru (Lima, 1916),inRevistade Criminalogia see JuanAngel Martinez,"Encuesta sobre 57. On criminaltypes as an "infection," Moderna20 (10oo), 614-16. On the right de la justiciapenal," Criminologia organizaci6n de los degenerato integrity, BenjaminT. Solari,"La defensade la raza por la castraci6n

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The consequencesderivedfrom principles of eugenicswentbeyond the interests of criminology. The causes of povertyand economic inequalitywere also identified withvariations in heredity.58 But eugenics also led manyto reversethiscausal orderand put moreemphasison the influence ofpoor standards oflivingas the cause forracialdegeneration. PaulinaLuisi oftheMontevideo Medical Schoolpublished in BuenosAires a summary ofthedemandsthenewscienceputon thestate:theprotection of racial reproduction againstmentaland physicaldegeneration, partly through the imposition ofcontrols on the reproduction ofthe hereditarily unfit, butalso through a wide variety ofsanitary measures. These included reform ofthe social environment through measures to combatalcoholism and the nonmedical use ofdrugs,harsh working conditions, poorphysical health,and sexualdiseases. All thesewere seen as eugenicissues,affecting the hereditary process.It was necessary to emphasizethe importance ofconof"thephysical and mental condition at themoment oftheparents a revision ception;"Luisi wentso faras to askfor oftheexisting legislation on abortion in orderto givedoctors to deal withthisissue.59 morefreedom The idea of rationalcontrol of the racialcomposition of the populationalso appealed to people outsidescientific circles,such as JoaquinV. Gonzailez. After promoting a national laborcode in 1904as minister ofthe interior, he became the leadingfigure in the debate on the social quesRacial concernsand the need to regulateimmigration tion.60 had been presentin his thought from the first manifestations ofthe socialquestion. But apparently onlyafter thepublication ofthe results ofthe FirstInternationalCongressof Eugenicsin London in 1912 did Gonzailez discover the new scienceand embraceitwithgreatenthusiasm. Thatsame yearhe in a seriesoflectures participated byLeopold Mabilleau,organized bythe Universidad Nacionalde La Plata,on "Cooperacion agricola."Mabilleau, in the director ofthe FrenchMusee Social, had been an important figure development of French mutualism.6' Conzalez chose as his subject the
dos. Las ideas profilacticas de Zucarelli," Archivos. . . (1902), 285-391. For the Catholic view,Emilio Lamarca,"La liga socialargentina," La Semana,Nov. 14, 1909, pp. 8-1o. For the supporters' JoseG. Angulo,"La nueva ciencia eug6nicay la esterilizaci6n retort, de los degenerados," Archivos. . . (1912), 623-25. Also, E. Clapar6de,"La protecci6n de los degeneradosy la eugen6tica," Revistade Criminalogia (1915),456-65; Ram6nMelgar,"El tipovencedoren la especie humana," Revistade Filosofia1 (1915),441. 58. Manuel Sall6s y Ferr6, "Origen y causa del pauperismo," Archivos. . . (1911), 541-54. 59. Paulina Luisi, "Sobre eugenia,"Revistade Filosofia2 (1916), 435-51. On "matrimonialeugenics,"see NancyStepan,Hour ofEugenics,chap. 4. 6o. Cf. "Residenciade extranjeros," OCJVGV, 177-85;"La cuesti6nsocial argentina," de ley nacionaldel trabajo," OCJVG XIII, 463-66; "Proyecto OCJVGVI, 327-31. 61. On Mabilleauand the FrenchMus6e Social cf.Sanford and Elwitt,"Social Reform Social Orderin Late Nineteenth-Century France:The Mus6e Socialand Its Friends," French HistoricalStudies11:3 (Spring1980),431-51.

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relation between mutualismand eugenic science. The state, he said, must intervene not only to prevent the reproductionof individuals "organically degenerated or unfit,"thereby contributingto a permanent racial selection, but also to organize conditions of work, as "preventive hygiene." Mutual aid societies and cooperatives realized a true "practical eugenics," since they focused their work on the most numerous classes, in whichgiven the tendency to unchecked procreation-there was a higher chance of degeneration.62 In 1913, discussing in the Senate a project for a national census, Gonzailez included in his report a section on "El problema de las razas." He pointed to the importance of a "ley de seleccion" in order to preserve "the race of tomorrow."The census, he said, must be used as a means to know the composition of the "superior races" that have popu"inferior races have been displaced"). lated Argentina(where, fortunately, The relevance of this knowledge, according to Gonzailez, had been conclusively demonstrated by "that new science incorporated to the science
of government .
.

. eugenic science."63

Having established the relevance of eugenics to "the life of nations," Gonzailez tied eugenics to another favoritetopic: education. In a 1914 lecture, he identifiedin education a mechanism of social selection, discriminating between the lower and higherelements ofsocietyand thus realizing another example of practical eugenics. Finally, in his essay "Patria y democracia" (1920), Gonzalez returned to the relation between racial ideas, nationalism, and social legislation that had played such an importantrole in his thought.64 During the 1920S and 1930S the eugenics movementreappeared with some momentum in academic and political circles. Victor Delfino, who had attended the First International Congress in 1912, founded in 1918 the short-livedArgentineEugenics Society. This was followed by the Liga Argentina de ProfilaxisSocial during the 1920S and the Asociacion Argentina de Biotipologia, Eugenesia y Medicina Social during the 1930s as the institutionallocation of the movement. A number of legislative initiatives on social hygiene and "protectionof the race" were sent to the Argentine
y eugenicasocial,' OCJVGXV, 429-34. "Cooperaci6n,mutualidad de las razas,"OCJVG sec. lo, "El problema 63. "El censo nacionaly la constituci6n," politica," OCJVGXI, 443-45. XI, 392-97. Also, "El censo y la representaci6n y la selecci6n "La escuela cientifica 64. On education,see Bosquejo de conferencia OCJVG XI, social. Educaci6n y eug6nica,"OCJVG XXII, 409-26. "Patriay democracia," intercited by Gonzalez in this workindicateshis continuing 636-37. The bibliography to Eugenics(London: Bowes An Introduction est in eugenics:W.C. D. and C. D. Whetam, a BiologicalStudy(London: G. Bell, 1911); Patriotism, & Bowes, 1912); H.G.F. Spurrell, in the U.S.," Annalsof theAmerican Academyof Politicaland Social "Race Improvement
62.

Science (1919), among others.

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the movement neverachievedthepolitical Congress, although cloutofits in the UnitedStates.65 counterpart The Paradoxof Racialism The absence ofa seriousracialquestionin Argentina at the dawn of this century makes the prevalent languageof and, in some cases, obsessive concernwithrace seem a condemnable exaggeration. Despite the racial rhetoric in politicaland intellectual circles,when comparedwithother Latin American nations and otherregions ofrecentsettlement Argentina did not face seriousracialconflicts. By the turnof the century, massive European immigration had reducedto a smallnumber the proportion of blacksand otherethnicminorities in the population. The answerto this paradoxlies to a verylargeextent in the"artifactual" natureofracialideas and racialcategories: theyare nota directreflection ofan existing social reality but a productof the complexinterrelationship between cultural and scientific practices,and as such are constantly being "created"and modified under different social circumstances.66 Certainintellectual and scientific currents, plus factors particular to Argentina (alongwiththe imswift and material migration, economicexpansion and a growing progress, concernwiththe nationalidentity), providedan appropriate groundfor the development ofan Argentine raciallanguage. Thislanguageofraceand evolution, so closely associated withscientific after Darwin'sdiscoveries, prestige was a suitablevehicleforovercoming ideologicaldifferences on the pressingsocial question.The role of the statebecame a matter ofappliedsocialscience,notofdifferent ideological or moralvalues,thusgiving a powerful claim perspectives socialreformers to intellectual superiority. Racial ideas, therefore, acquired the statusof in the social sciences,prescribing paradigms to a large degree the ways new disciplinessuch as hygiene, social medicine,and criminology were to develop duringthe period. In the political arena,racialconcernsgave impulseto muchofthe sociallegislation the period-such passed during as Sundayrest,regulation ofworking conditions forwomenand children,
withinthem,are ex65. The institutions, and the scientific and ideologicalcurrents cf. Jos6 tensively analyzed by Nancy Stepan in her Hour of Eugenics.On the legislation, Revistade Ciencias Le6n Suarez, "Eug6nica. Necesidad de su ensefianza y divulgaci6n," Econ6micas,ser. 2, 88 (Nov. 1928), 2506-32, and 89 (Dec. 1929), 2607-24; H. Vezzetti,"El discurso psiquiatrico," in El movimiento positivista argentino, ed. H. Biagini(BuenosAires: en la Argentina," 20. Editorial de Belgrano,1985),372; Orioneand Rocchi,"El darwinismo 66. On the proportion of minorities, see George Reid Andrews,"Race versusClass Association: The Afro-Argentines of BuenosAires,1850-1900," Journalof Latin American see NancyStepan, Studies11:1(1979), 19-39. On the"artifactual" aspectofracialcategories, Hour ofEugenics,xiv-xix.

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and insurance against industrial accidents-and to thedecisionto regulate intoparts theimmigration process.All theseissueswerethustransformed an "objective" sciencethat ofa new and comprehensive scienceofsociety, to the new made no ideologicaldistinctions in its searchforthe solution socialproblems. betweenthe languageof Duringthe interwar period,the connection race and the "scientific" approachto thesocialquestionbegan to weaken, currents began gradually but dramatias new ideologicaland intellectual ofpoliticaldebate in Argentina. callyto transform the form and content influtheyreflected the powerful At the turnof the century, however, ence certainideas exertedall over the worldand across all ideological betweenstateand boundarieson the conformation ofa new relationship society.